G'day lovely friends! Last week I posted about my love of fresh flowers and I was so touched by your very kind responses and comments about my post. Your words made me realise a few things about where I am heading with my blog. I loved putting that post together and I wrote it while contemplating the many emails I had recently received from advertisers, marketing companies, people who want to do guest blogging etc etc. I am in the middle of hosting a give away right now and, as much as I have enjoyed doing this, I felt so pressured to do the right thing for everyone else that I lost focus on what this blog was meant to be all about in the first place,

I love being an amateur photographer and writing about things that make ME happy, like my family, my home, decorating, cooking and music. You have probably noticed that I have found other online passions, Pinterest and Instagram!

So, from now on I will be posting about things that I love and I won't be doing any more give-aways, unless of course they are from me alone! I will still have Google Ads on my blog, though, as they are providing me with a teeny little bit of extra pocket money which is great, especially since I am not working full time to focus on my family. I will still be hosting my weekly Say G'Day Saturday Linky Party on the weekends because I love meeting new bloggers from all around the globe! Having my post up on Friday also means that I can have the weekend to myself and I can come and visit all of my bloggy friends during the week. That makes me happy!

So, apart from blogging, what else makes me happy?

Well, my family is, and, will always be, my number one priority and everything I do is for them. So for today's post I would like to share some of the ways that I try to make our home a happy place...

Here are 5 Ways I try to make a Happy Home!

I try my hardest to make our home a happy place and I also try to make visitors to our home feel part of the family. I know I've already touched on it but I will just re-emphasise that I love having fresh flowers in our home. It is definitely one of the first things I do to make our home look and feel welcoming and beautiful.

The 2nd Way I try to make a Happy Home is to have lots of family photos everywhere. I love looking at family snaps and reminiscing about the happy times we have had together as a family. I have a photo wall in our main den, I have portraits on walls and I have frames all over the house.

The third thing I love to do in our home is to not to aim for total perfection! I aim instead to have a warm and welcoming environment in our home by having lots of fun accessories in every room to add happy pops of colour. I'm always faffing around the house, plumping cushions, finding new homes for things and trying to make our home personal, colourful, comfy and happy!

The fourth way I try to create a happy home is by making it smell nice. I don't mean that I am always spraying our home with Ambi-pur and the like. I try to have scented candles burning as often as possible and I use a variety of sprays to create fresh aromas and provide a happy mood in the house.

The final way that I make our home a happy place is by playing music.

We all have ipods and we all love listening to our favourite music throughout the day. For example, this week Maddy has been constantly playing this:

Big Al just heard this song performed at a school choral performance so he has been singing this non stop!

Mr Attorney loves tormenting us sharing with us his love of the classic song Khe Sanh by Australian band Cold Chisel.

Anyone who knows me and follows my blog would know that I love ALL kinds of music and my ipod playlist is wide and varied. This week I have been listening to Christmas music, Adele, Beethoven and this.

Why do I love music so much? Well, there are so many studies about the importance of music and Louise Miles, president of the Australian Music Therapy Association, says music works by turning on multiple areas of your brain: "It has the power to access emotion, stimulate memory, affect your physiology and change your thinking patterns if you're exposed to it over a period of time." (Australian Women's Health)

And the most important reason we have music playing in our home all the time is

because it makes us Happy!

That is why I am going to try to keep posting music on my blog and I'm going to try and bring back my weekly #TuesdayTune posts soon too!

So there you have it, 5 Ways I try to make a Happy Home. I know I could have added so many more things to my list, like cooking for my family, sharing a meal with them every night and decorating our home but I think I might save them for another post!

What kinds of things do you do at your place to make your home a happy one?

Thanks so much for visiting me in my little corner of the world today. I am so grateful for the wonderful friends I have made in my nearly two years of blogging and I look forward to catching up with you at your bloggy homes during the week.

G'Day friends! I'm so glad you stopped by to say hello today! Welcome also to my new friends who have so kindly joined up and are following NatashaInOz.com! It always makes me so happy to find new friends so thank you very much!

I hope that everyone has had a great week so far. It looks like many bloggers are either busy getting kids back to school after the Summer Holidays or getting ready for Spring Break as is the case in our house!

I have started Spring cleaning at our place and as much as I hate cleaning I always feel so much happier when the house is sparkling clean. In my last post I mentioned that I am trying to be greener by using cloth shopping bags. Another way I am Greening up my life is by adding more greenery to our home décor.

I am having trouble finding good quality fresh flowers, though, so I have been using lots of free
foliage from the garden.

I love having fresh flowers in our house because they make our home so happy and cheerful and, according to behavioral research conducted at The State University of New Jersey, fresh flowers can actually improve our emotional well-being!

The study was partially funded by the Society of American Florists and it shows that the presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behavior in a positive manner far beyond what is normally believed. Researchers said that many flowers have pleasing scents, shapes, and colors, which may contribute to our positive reaction to them. Flowers also have long-term positive effects on moods with study participants reported feeling less depressed, anxious and agitated after receiving flowers, and demonstrated a higher sense of enjoyment and life satisfaction. (Source)

Another study conducted in 2006 by Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital found that simply displaying fresh-cut flowers in the home can have advantages because the presence of flowers in the home increases feelings of compassion, decreases anxiety and boosts energy and enthusiasm at work.

The greatest mood-boosting effects were felt when fresh-cut flowers were placed in the kitchen, dining room, or family room. "Flowers bring about positive emotional feelings in those who enter a room," Dr. Haviland-Jones stated. "They make thespace more welcoming and create a sharing atmosphere."

Now, don't despair if you are like me and you can't find any decent fresh flowers! Just do what I do and go walking around your garden (or your parent's garden!), find some foliage and plonk it artfully place it in a vase.

Gum~nuts from the Eucalyptus tree, an iconic Specimen of Australian flora.

So, don't think that you can't have fresh foliage in your home. There is always a way to make your home bright, cheerful and welcoming any time of the year!

This week I have been trying to find some more ideas for reusable cloth bags for my weekly shopping trips. I have been trying very hard to stop using plastic bags and have a few bags that I always use but they are starting to look a bit tired. My favourite bag is this cloth Cath Kidston bag which I use for small shopping trips. It folds up nicely and it looks pretty too!

It really does pay off to enter a give away using all of the options given...Queensland Girl tweeted, followed, facebooked and her hard work paid off. I'm going to have to remember to do that next time I enter a give away.

We'll be in touch with you soon to arrange the prize!

If you didn't win, don't despair. I have another give away coming up soon so stay tuned and come back soon!

Welcome friends to Natasha In Oz! I'm so happy to see you! I hope that you have all had a great week. I have had a wonderful time reading the posts that were linked up to my weekly Say G'day Saturday Linky Party!

I just want to remind you about the amazing give away that I'm hosting for Aussie Bloggers!

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